Chapter 336 Chelsea’s relentless pursuit and Diego Costa’s counterattack!
"Wilshere! Arsenal's number 10, our pride, he scored a wonderful goal to help the team equalize!"
"We are still one goal behind, now is not the time to slack off, keep attacking, Gunners!"
Arsenal changed their tactics at the beginning of the second half.
They changed their style in the first half and put more manpower into the offense.
With more support from the midfield and backcourt, Arsenal's gorgeous passing and cutting cooperation in the frontcourt began to appear again.
This scene made the Gunners fans at the scene excited!
That’s it, this is the Arsenal we are familiar with!
This is the Emirates Stadium, our home ground, we should not be afraid of anyone!
After scoring the goal, these young players of Arsenal were in full swing.
Their ability to withstand pressure is indeed relatively poor, and their performance in the game is prone to huge ups and downs.
But after they let go of their burdens and played their own style, Arsenal's offensive firepower should not be underestimated.
At the beginning of the second half, Manchester City played very passively.
There are no top stars in Arsenal's lineup, but each of their players has delicate footwork.
After their confidence is developed, they can often perform some imaginative passing and cutting combinations on the court.
This kind of passing and cutting cooperation, even the once powerful Barcelona team could not stand it and almost overturned! It was the first time that Manchester City saw Arsenal's crazy attack. Under the opponent's full-scale attack, they were forced to retreat back to their own half to defend.
Lin Quan felt very strange because Arsenal's condition in the first half and the second half was completely different.
Not only is the playing style different, but the players' attitude towards the game and their condition on the court have also changed dramatically.
This made him very curious. What did Wenger say to the Arsenal players in the locker room during the halftime break? What kind of chicken soup could make such a big change in their state? Although he didn't know what was going on, Lin Quan knew that he had to curb Arsenal's offensive.
Otherwise, if the opponent scores another goal, the game will be very suspenseful.
What you fear will come true! Just when he was worried that Arsenal would take advantage of this offensive climax to score another goal, Manchester City lost the ball again!
In the 74th minute, Arsenal launched an attack from the right.
Ramsey made a cross from the right, but Kompany failed to head the ball away.
Wilshere headed the ball into the left side of the penalty area before the defender could do so. Sanchez, who was retreating, saw the ball coming again and volleyed it sideways.
The ball came too suddenly and Navas could only subconsciously stretch out his hand to block it, but the football hit the upper right corner of the goal.
Arsenal scored two goals in a row and the score was changed to 2:2!
The Emirates Stadium was in a frenzy the moment Sanchez scored.
The Chilean star excitedly took off his jersey, ran along the sidelines and slid down the track to celebrate.
His teammates chased after him, tackled him to the ground and celebrated wildly.
This is the third goal Sanchez has scored in his last three games. After joining Arsenal, it took him only four games to conquer the Gunners fans.
On the sidelines, Wenger also waved his fist excitedly.
It was indeed painful to spend the 43.5 million euros, but judging from Sanchez's performance in recent games, the money was well worth it!
Since Van Persie left, Arsenal has been in need of a real big shot! Pellegrini saw the opponent's goal and rushed to the sidelines a little angrily, shouting at the players on the field, asking them to concentrate and not be distracted.
In recent games, captain Kompany's performance has been up and down and not as stable as before.
Thinking of this, he glanced at the bench and his eyes rested on summer signing Van Dijk.
Should he be substituted in? Van Dijk was watching the game intently from the bench.
Although he played many times for Manchester City in a series of warm-up matches before the season and performed well.
But when the Premier League started, he still had few opportunities to play.
After all, he can only be considered a substitute at best, not a regular main player.
However, Van Dijk did not complain about this, as Manchester City is a treble winning team.
As a player who has never played in the top five leagues, it is impossible for him to expect to secure a starting position as soon as he arrives in the team.
All he has to do is train well, cherish every minute on the court, work hard to win the trust of the coach and other teammates, so as to get more playing time and eventually secure his position as a starter.
Van Dijk is full of confidence in this regard!
"Virgil, go warm up and get ready to play!"
Just then, Van Dijk heard his coach calling his name.
He suppressed his inner surprise, stood up from the bench immediately, and ran to the sidelines to warm up.
After Pellegrini called Van Dijk's name, he looked at the others on the bench.
Arsenal's wing attack was very fierce in this game.
Their midfield is very strong, with Ozil, Wilshere, Ramsey, Sanchez and others all having excellent skills.
The two players can play very threatening cooperation in a small area, which makes it difficult for Manchester City's pressing to be effective.
Once the opponent penetrates their defense with passing and cooperation, it will pose a fatal threat to their goal.
Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen interception in the middle.
Thinking of this, he called out Fernando's name, intending to let him play to strengthen the midfield.
In the 78th minute of the second half, Manchester City began to make substitutions and replaced two players at once.
After Van Dijk came on the pitch, Arsenal players thought he was young and easy to bully, so they intensified their attacks on him.
Sanchez, Ramsey and others took turns to attack Van Dijk's defensive area, hoping to create a breakthrough through him.
However, to their disappointment, the young man's performance was extremely calm. Not only did he not make any mistakes, but he also froze their offense with excellent defense.
On the other side, after Fernando came on the court, he and his Brazilian compatriot Fernandinho formed an impenetrable iron gate in the midfield.
Manchester City's midfield toughness has greatly improved, and they have begun to actively increase their pressure on Arsenal's midfielders.
It is no secret that Ozil is afraid of physical confrontation in the Premier League. The more he fears and avoids physical confrontation, the more opponents like to use this trick against him! Manchester City is no exception!
Under the pressure and harassment of Fernandinho and Fernando, Ozil's condition deteriorated rapidly.
His performance on the court became worse and worse, and his mistakes increased.
Although Arsenal's midfield lineup is gorgeous, no one can compare to Ozil in terms of threatening passing ability.
After freezing Ozil, Arsenal's offensive threat began to plummet.
After Manchester City stole the ball from Ozil, they made full use of the large space behind the opponent and launched a threatening counterattack with quick and simple passes and movements.
Cazorla was injured in this game and Arsenal played with Flamini as the lone defensive midfielder.
It is difficult for a single defensive midfielder to cover the entire midfield when defending! After grasping this point, Manchester City continued to use the two flanks to launch attacks.
Facing Manchester City's counterattack, Arsenal players were very active in defending.
But apart from Ramsey, the other three players are attacking midfielders, and their defensive and intercepting abilities are not strong.
Running back from the front court to defend basically does not provide much help except wasting their own physical energy.
The three attacking midfielders were not effective in returning to defense, which led to a disconnect between Arsenal's back line and midfield within the 30-meter area.
A defensive midfielder alone cannot make up for such a large defensive gap! This weakness was keenly captured by Manchester City!
In the 82nd minute of the game, Manchester City intercepted the ball and launched a quick counterattack.
Read the error-free version on 6Ⅹ9Ⅹ bookⅩ bar! 6Ⅹ9 book bar first publishes a novel.
The football continued to pass forward and finally landed at Lin Quan's feet.
An open area appeared in front of him. Lin Quan did not miss such an opportunity. After cutting in from the wing, he dribbled the ball horizontally in the open area in front of Arsenal's penalty area.
Arsenal's defenders became extremely nervous when they saw Lin Quan dribbling the ball outside his own penalty area.
While their attention was drawn to Lin Quan, they did not notice a big player in a sky blue jersey who rushed in from behind at high speed and entered Arsenal's penalty area.
After Lin Quan saw his teammate's advance, he decisively sent a cross.
Van Dijk jumped high to meet the ball and headed the ball into Arsenal's goal.
The score became 3:2!
Manchester City took the lead again!
This was Van Dijk's first goal in the Premier League! After scoring this goal, he was as excited as a child, rushed to the sidelines, and celebrated with a domineering slide.
On the sidelines, Pellegrini was also very excited when he saw Van Dijk score a crucial goal. He hugged and high-fived his colleagues one by one to celebrate.
Manchester City fans were also very excited. They didn't expect that this new player, who only cost 10 million euros, would be so powerful.
At this crucial moment when they are competing with Chelsea for the top spot, this goal is worth a thousand dollars!
"This guy, why is he there?"
"He's too confident in his play. If he gets counterattacked, he'll be the one to take the blame!"
Lin Quan was also very curious and didn't know how Van Dijk got to the vicinity of Arsenal's penalty area.
So, after the other party finished celebrating, he opened his mouth and asked about his doubts.
"It was like this. The opponent's striker Welbeck retreated to defend. I followed him to the middle and saw an open space in front of the goal, so I rushed over."
After hearing the other party's explanation, Lin Quan couldn't help laughing.
Van Dijk had just come on the pitch and was full of energy, so he had no problem running all over the field.
Even if his forward attack this time fails, he can run back to defend in the shortest time possible.
Arsenal had never expected that a defender would advance so deep, and they had no time to assign people to defend him.
Even though they saw him moving forward, they were unable to stop him immediately due to physical problems, which gave him the perfect opportunity to score a header.
If it weren't for Van Dijk's clever forward run, it might have taken Lin Quan more effort to get the ball to Arsenal fans.
"Lin, thank you for the pass. It was a great pass. I have never had such a comfortable header before!"
Realizing that this was a great opportunity to get closer to the team leader, Van Dijk immediately thanked Lin Quan and flattered him.
Lin Quan smiled and said, "You fought beautifully yourself!"
A new player is so good and so active on the field. As the boss of the team, he has to encourage him! After falling behind again, the Gunners players became a little anxious.
There were less than ten minutes left in the game, and unless they could score two goals in a row, victory would be a luxury.
But now they don't dare to hope for three points, just to equalize the score as soon as possible and get one point! After realizing that there was a problem with the defense in the middle, under Wenger's command, Arsenal's midfield consciously shrank their positions, further increasing the connection between each other and not giving Manchester City too many gaps to exploit.
But this move did not achieve very good results, Manchester City has found a way to deal with them.
At the end of the game, Manchester City's midfielder crossed the half court and launched a frantic pressing attack on Ozil and Wilshere.
These two players couldn't even hold the ball, and would be intercepted if they took a few more steps.
Lin Quan continued to launch fierce attacks from the right, looking for trouble with Ozil again and again.
Ozil was unable to take care of himself due to Lin Quan's life. Almost all his focus was on defense, but he still could not do anything. He had to watch Manchester City attack from his side again and again.
This scene looked very familiar to many fans, as it was very similar to the one Spain used against Germany in the World Cup final! Wenger was forced to replace Ozil with Bordowski.
After Ozil left the field, Manchester City's two defensive midfielders concentrated their firepower on pressing Wilshere.
The latter was unable to hold the ball, and without the connection between Ozil and Wilshere, Arsenal's offensive system became fragmented and it was difficult to organize an effective attack.
In the final moments of the game, Sanchez tried to use his personal strength to complete a breakthrough.
But he is not Messi or Lin Quan after all. His strength is limited after all, and he cannot resolve the battle by himself.
Without the support of his teammates, Sanchez's solo play not only failed to help the team equalize the score, but also completely paralyzed Arsenal's offensive system, which was already in chaos.
On the sidelines, Wenger couldn't help but frowned when he saw Sanchez playing in the frontcourt.
Was this guy like this when he was in Barcelona? In the end, the game was over and Arsenal lost the game at home with a score of 2:3.
After this game, Arsenal dropped to 10th place in the standings, 7 points behind Manchester City.
After this victory, Manchester City has won all four games and continues to lead the standings.
In another Premier League match that followed, Chelsea, playing at home, beat Swansea 4:2 and also maintained their undefeated record.
However, their goal difference was one less than Manchester City, and they ranked second due to the disadvantage of goal difference.
However, on another list, Chelsea's players surpassed Lin Quan! In Chelsea's victory over Swansea, Diego Costa completed a hat trick within 20 minutes.
This was his first hat trick since coming to the Premier League. With this hat trick, his total number of goals reached 8! With a one-goal advantage, he temporarily surpassed Lin Quan and topped the Premier League scorer list.
(End of this chapter)